When Reince Priebus signed on to be White House chief of staff, he envisioned being "the gatekeeper, the guy who has control of who comes in and out all day," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) told The New York Times. Instead, the Times reported, Priebus has regularly stood by while he watches President Trump do whatever it is that President Trump wants to do:
The signature image of Mr. Trump's first 100 days in office, people close to the president said, is that of Mr. Priebus standing just inside the open door of the Oval Office, agitated and rolling his eyes, as Mr. Trump beckons another seemingly random gaggle of aides, friends, family, visitors, reporters — even the White House decorator — in for an unstructured chat or, worst of all, policy discussions.Mr. Priebus, who has said he has self-diagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder, tried at first to restrict these interactions, often by keeping the president busy with ceremonial events like executive order signings and meetings with business leaders. [The New York Times]
But Trump — nostalgic for the "unstructured time" he enjoyed as a businessman — soon pushed back, forcing Priebus to abandon that strategy.
Now, Priebus is focused on streamlining Trump's schedule by reducing the number of people talking to Trump on a daily basis and keeping the guest list at Oval Office meetings to a minimum. Priebus has enjoyed one "small but significant victory" so far, The New York Times noted: "excluding Omarosa Manigault, the former Apprentice contestant and Trump favorite, from as many meetings as possible."
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Read more on the trials and tribulations Priebus has faced — including listening to Trump mock his close relationship with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) by "merging" their names into "Ryan-ce" — over at The New York Times.
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